


Blue

by harakiridaddy



Series: Runners. [2]
Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: EFA Fic Live 4, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:33:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24281383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harakiridaddy/pseuds/harakiridaddy
Summary: two firsts.two convictions.
Relationships: Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught
Series: Runners. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752817
Comments: 23
Kudos: 301





	Blue

Nicole stares inside her empty coffee mug, foot tapping against the linoleum. She breathes in and out and in again.

It’s 7:19 AM. They should be leaving in eleven minutes.

“Waves?” Nicole calls out again. “We’re gonna be late”.

Waverly Earp pops her head inside their small kitchen, rolling her eyes. 

“Late for  _ what?” _ she asks, but there is no spite in her voice, “no one’s waiting for us!”

Nicole sighs.

“For the- for the  _ ocean _ !” 

Waverly smiles, mindlessly tying her braid as she walks over to place a kiss on the top of Nicole’s head. 

“Baby,” she whispers, “I don’t think the ocean has any notion of time”.

Nicole sighs. 

“I know your schedule says 7:30, love,” Waverly reminds her, “I’m almost ready”.

***

They race towards the front door, Waverly giggling the entire time, and Nicole wins, as she always does. She waits for her girlfriend by the door, laughing as Waverly frowns.

“It’s not fair!” the woman points out, “your legs are twice my size!”

Nicole only chuckles, and Waverly’s façade lasts about ten seconds, which is the time it takes her to reach Nicole Haught. 

She fixes Nicole’s hat. 

“It ain’t about fairness,” Nicole winks, “it’s about winning”.

Waverly laughs, opening the door for them, and they walk out into the suffocating heat of the Los Angeles sun. 

“Oh God,” Nicole whines. 

“Did you put on sunscreen?” Waverly asks her for the second time that day. 

“It’s muscle memory by now, baby,” Nicole reminds her.

She didn’t like the smell of it, and she hated how sticky it made her skin, but on her very first day outside in their new home, she’d very quickly learned her skin was  _ not  _ made for this kind of weather. 

(Waverly bought her the nice sunscreen, though, the ones which smell real nice and don’t make you all that sticky, and though she never told Nicole how much they cost, she knew they were expensive.

It was funny, how simple it was, but it confirmed the two things Nicole already knew).

By the time they’re climbing inside her truck, Nicole can already feel the sweat causing her tank top to stick against her back.

She groans.

“I can’t believe you’re so grumpy,” Waverly huffs, “it’s our first time on the beach!”

“I’m not grumpy,” Nicole retorts, “it’s just  _ hot _ ”.

“Oh, I’m sorry miss I-hate-the-winter-because-i-can’t-work-when-there’s-snow,” Waverly rolls her eyes, but she smiles.

“I ain’t too fond of this free sample of hell either,” Nicole tells her, holding Waverly’s hand after she starts the car. The woman laughs, squeezing her hand.

Once.

Twice.

Nicole squeezes back on the third.

***

“El Matador means-”

“The killer,” Nicole says with a small smile, “ya’ve told me that about five hundred times”.

Waverly blushes. 

“It’s a strange name for a beach, though,” Nicole adds, eyes squinting as she tries to find an empty parking spot.

“I  _ know! _ ” Waverly beams, “I looked into it, but i can’t figure out why they named it that!”

“Ain’t it ‘em whales?” Nicole asks, sighing in relief when she spots an empty space she  _ thinks  _ she might be able to squeeze in.

“What about whales?” Waverly asks, cocking her eyebrow playfully.

“Ain’t there like… Killer… whales?” 

Waverly giggles.

“What about the Killer Whales, love?”

Nicole feels her cheeks burning.

“That’s where the name came from,” she points out with a whine. 

Waverly giggles.

“I think you’ve figured it out,” she says, laughing. 

Nicole rolls her eyes.

***

They didn’t have time to go to the beach, before.

Moving was exhausting, and Waverly’s love for tiny pillows and useless trinkets made it a tad more tiresome, though Nicole did not mind.

They’d seen the ocean, of course. It was the very first thing they did. Nicole does not think she will ever forget the feeling of stepping on the sand, sneakers still on, and running, Waverly’s laughter mixing with the sound of the waves crashing and the sea gulls crooning. She’d stopped, when she got to the water. 

It was scary, that vast, infinite ocean, daunting and glimmering and as unknown as the sky above them. And then Waverly Earp had crashed against her, soft little hands holding onto her waist as they both fell forward, Nicole’s skin struggling to understand the sudden change of temperature.

The water was cold. Cold enough to be uncomfortable, actually, and Nicole remembers feeling confused. It was strange, something that looked so warm and inviting forcing her hair to stand on end, her muscles to contract.

But again, Waverly Earp was still holding onto her waist, coughing up salt water after swallowing it between her giggling.

Nicole was no stranger to contradiction. 

“It’s  _ cold _ !”Nicole had yelled, wiping her eyes, clothes sticking to her skin. 

Waverly had just smiled at her, eyes wide and promising sun light, and Nicole knew she did not feel the ice. 

***

Nicole had always thought the ocean was blue.

That day, when they sat down, both shivering as their wet clothes only worsened the cold, Nicole digging her feet on the sand and relishing the feeling of every single grain which scratched against her skin, with the sun low on the horizon and Waverlys wet hair tickling her chin, she realized it was green.

All grass and unknown planets.

She was glad she had someone to explore them with, this time.

***

Nicole smiles as Waverly sprints towards the ocean, sandals still on, and she smiles when she reaches the water and does not stop, slowing to a halt only when the water touches her thighs. 

She watches the small frame stand still, the rippling memories of waves sliding around her,  _ through  _ her, and she knows Waverly Earp is breathing in the salt in the air, the same way she always did when they passed by the coast.

In two months, she’d insist on going to the beach every weekend.

In two months, something always came up.

(it was alright, Nicole knew. She was only starting to know a few clients, and Waverly was still getting used to the grueling pace of her master’s programme, and they’d just moved and barely knew the city and they were just so  _ tired. _

But it was the nice kind of tired, made up of aching joints and content sighs, and Nicole would have a million long, exhausting days if it meant getting home and starting on their dinner, wearing nothing but her underwear, and she’d have a million more if it meant Waverly would get home half an hour later, sighing heavily. 

“You didn’t have to cook us anything,” she’d say with a smile, pressing a kiss to each of Nicole’s shoulder blades, rubbing her cheek against her back.

“I know,” Nicole would say, because she did, and Waverly would caress her back and tell her what she’d learned and how nice it was that Joan could give her a ride everyday.

And they’d eat, and Nicole knew two things).

Nicole walks slowly, shoes dangling from her right hand, and she focuses on the sand underneath her feet. 

“Ya done gonna get ya clothes all wet,” she tells Waverly.

The water reaches her feet, caressing her skin with icy certainty before it retreats, and for a moment Nicole swears the waves are following the pace of Waverly Earp’s breathing. 

“Are you not coming?” Waverly asks, turning around. 

If Poseidon had sent Cetus after Andromeda for being too beautiful, Nicole is not sure what could happen to Waverly Earp if she stood in the ocean a moment too long. 

She’d never met anyone else who could wear the sun as a crown. 

(and she knew she never would).

“Ya look awful pretty,” she tells Waverly as the girl walks up to her, legs pushing against water and against current until her soft little hands are cupping Nicole’s cheeks. 

“So do you,” she replies, smiling before kissing her.

It is warm, but Nicole is no longer bothered by it.

***

Waverly can only float if Nicole’s hand is pressing against her lower back. She can’t relax otherwise, she tells her.

So Nicole holds her up, her weight almost imperceptible, and she watches the girl breathe in and breathe out and breathe in again, salt water kissing her skin.

(it was almost golden, now. Waverly would often sit under the sun, reading her heavy books and taking notes as Nicole tended to their small garden.

She’d get a tan shaped like a book, Nicole would warn her. 

Waverly would only point to Nicole’s wrists, to the small bands of red skin which her long sleeves and gardening gloves failed to protect. Nicole always forget to put on sunscreen there).

“I never thought I’d swim in the ocean,” Waverly sighs, and Nicole knows her eyes are closed behind her sunglasses. 

“I ain’t sure I thought that was an option,” Nicole tells her with a grin. 

Waverly’s lips quirk up, but Nicole knows it’s a sad smile.

“Are you happy here?” Waverly asks, and a small wave passes through them. The small of her back loses the palm of Nicole’s hand for a moment, but they settle together again.

“I am,” Nicole tells her, because she is. “Tell ya what,” Nicole starts, and Waverly moves, sudden as she always is. 

She pushes herself up, quirking an eyebrow, and her soft little hands meet behind Nicole’s neck.

“I ain’t sure I ever thought I could be this happy,” Nicole tells her with a shrug, removing her hat and placing it on Waverly’s head.

Waverly clicks her tongue. 

“Now, now, cowboy,” she smiles, returning the hat to Nicole, “you need it more than I do”.

Nicole scoffs.

“Here I am, trynna be sweet-”

Waverly cuts her off with a kiss, legs moving underwater until they’re wrapped around Nicole’s hips. 

“You  _ are  _ sweet,” Waverly smiles against her lips, “no need to be sunburnt, too”.

***

Waverly jogs back, Nicole’s flannel shirt tied around her hips. 

(Nicole didn’t have the heart to tell her it was the only shirt she’d brought). 

She throws herself down onto their picnic blanket, handing Nicole a delightfully cold pepsi and sipping on her own beer. Nicole’s hat sits by their side, turned upside down and buried just enough to serve as their cup holder.

“God, it’s hot,” Waverly whines, holding the cold can to the nape of her neck with a grimace. 

Nicole smirks. 

“‘n ya wanted to settle on a spot over where ‘em stupids are,” Nicole nods towards the small crowd sat under the scorching sun. 

“I don’t like the cave,” Waverly reasons, pointing at the boulder sheltering them, “there could be  _ bats _ ”.

“Ain’t ever heard of no beach bats, lil lady,” Nicole reminds her, laying down and settling her head on Waverly’s lap.

Waverly giggles.

“You know what I was thinking?”

Nicole hums.

“Wyn would  _ hate  _ it here”.

Nicole laughs.

“She  _ would _ ”.

“Rosita would love it, though”.

Nicole sighs, smiling up at Alectrona in her crown of salt and light. 

“Ya miss ‘em?”

Waverly smiles down at her.

“Of course”. 

Nicole hums.

“I miss the old man, too,” she says, casting her eyes to the sea. 

It is not blue.

“Just enough, though,” Waverly says, fingers running through Nicole’s wet strands.

“Enough?”

Waverly hums.

“Enough,” she starts, considering, “I guess just… enough to know I love them. Not enough to want to go back”.

Nicole smiles, and she says nothing.

***

At night, she can still hear the ocean, and it mixes with Waverly’s light breathing.

She thinks of sea monsters and coral reefs and killer whales, but her ocean’s made of leaves and roots and green.

She is not scared of it’s vastness or of it’s infinity, and it is not cold.

(Waverly Earp rubs her cheek against Nicole’s chest, and she supposes infinity comes in many sizes.

And she knows she loves the girl who wakes up early just so they can have breakfast together, and she knows that girl loves her, too).


End file.
